The Crime of the Century; Or, The Assassination of Dr. Patrick Henry CroninHunt, Henry M.
History
The Crime of the Century; Or, The Assassination of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin
Hunt, Henry M.
Cronin, Patrick Henry, 1846-1889; Trials (Assassination) -- Illinois -- Chicago
Considering the fact that the body had in all probability, been in the
place where it was found for nearly three weeks, it was not by any means
in the condition that would have been expected under the circumstances.
It had swollen, however, to about one-third of the natural size. As it
appeared under the gas light it was that of a stout, well-nourished man
of about forty-five years of age. The skin was white, although the body
and chest was considerably bloated. The feet, which had been the most
exposed, were hardly cracked. The hair had peeled from the skin both of
face and body. One side of the mustache, with the skin attached, was
turned over onto the lip. Only a few straggling hairs were left on the
other side, but, just under the lower lip, a small but well-defined
goatee of dark bristling hairs was apparent. The forehead was bald,
while the thick dark hair lay in matted clots on the back of the head.
The chin--the towel not having been replaced--was sunk well into the
neck. The mouth was tightly closed, and for a time resisted all efforts
to force it open. About the ears and hands the skin hung in shreds, and
the eyelids had swollen to such an extent that they had forced each
other partly open. But it was the head that attracted the greatest
attention, and brought exclamations of horror from the few spectators.
It was a mass of wounds. In the forehead at the roots of the hair there
were three horrible cuts, each over an inch in length, and attended with
a slight discoloration that indicated decay. These had evidently been
made with a sharp instrument. Over the right eye there was a wound that
looked as though it might have been made with the cutting edge of a
blunt axe. Others on the back of the head were evidently the work of a
blunter instrument, but the worst one of all, on the top of the head,
suggested the use of the back of a heavy axe. There was no need to look
elsewhere for horrible explanations of the cause of death. The head told
its own story. The unfortunate physician had been hacked to death with a
brutality beyond conception.
FRIENDS IDENTIFY THE REMAINS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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